By Tim Higgins

Tesla Inc.'s effort to bring out the Model 3 brought the electric car company near collapse. Now Chief Executive Elon Musk has divulged a new twist: He says he contacted his Apple Inc. counterpart, Tim Cook, to save his company.

"During the darkest days of the Model 3 program, I reached out to Tim Cook to discuss the possibility of Apple acquiring Tesla (for 1/10 of our current value)," Mr. Musk said in a tweet Tuesday. But the Apple CEO, he said, "refused to take the meeting."

Apple didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mr. Musk revealed the latest detail as he worked to question whether Apple is serious about bringing out an electric car of its own amid a new report the company is pushing for 2024 production

On Twitter, Mr. Musk called the report "strange, if true."

Mr. Musk on Tuesday didn't specify exactly when he approached Mr. Cook.

Launched in 2017, the Model 3 proved harder to build than Mr. Musk expected. Costly delays mounted before Tesla eventually worked through production and delivery snags in 2018, when it posted profitable quarters in the second half of that year. It continued to struggle the early part of the following year, however.

In August 2018, Mr. Musk shocked investors with the idea of taking the electric-car maker private in what would have been the biggest buyout in history. Mr. Musk at the time wrote on Twitter: "Am considering taking Tesla private at $420. Funding secured." The deal didn't happen, and the tweet spurred a Securities and Exchange Commission probe and legal battles with the regulator.

By the third quarter of 2019, Tesla had turned the corner and kicked off a string of quarterly profits, exciting investors who have sent the company's shares soaring and made the company the most valuable auto maker in the world with a value of more than $600 billion. It was added to the S&P 500 index, a key benchmark, on Monday.

Excitement around the company has allowed Tesla to raise billions of dollars for what Mr. Musk has described as his war chest.

Mr. Musk didn't respond to questions about his latest tweet.

Write to Tim Higgins at Tim.Higgins@WSJ.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 22, 2020 17:10 ET (22:10 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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